We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Rachel DesRochers. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Rachel below.

Rachel, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

I remember so clearly when someone came up to me after I gave a talk and told me they couldn’t believe how risky I was. And I think it was the first time I ever thought of me and my work or me being an entrepreneur as risky because I felt so slow and low and practical. It hasn’t necessarily felt like a risk, but I think the flip side is I have probably worked on well over 200 different projects and ideas and I’ve owned and operated six companies over the course of 16 years as an entrepreneur and so every day I’m walking in calculated risk.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

Hi, I’m Rachel. I’m a serial entrepreneur. What I like to say is that I just love to build cool shit. In my course of 16 years of building projects and companies I’ve done a little bit of everything. But I could narrow it down and say that I build in women in food. The first part of my career was really focused in food. I had a cookie company, Grateful Graham’s. I went on to open a nonprofit, the Incubator Kitchen Collective, which we’re still in operation today and have supported over 200 food startups here in the region. Good and Local was a project we tried to build to solve local purchasing here in the region. Power to pursue is the women’s work that I build. We put on the largest conference in the region for women and we do lots of programs under that, including Ascending Women or the HERizon Project. There’s a Rachel Bucket that has allowed me to author a book and a gratitude journal. I have spoken at multitude of events across the region, even across the globe. I consult on Projects I would call myself a community architect across the region, including projects like the Purple People Bridge for America’s River Roots. And my latest project to date is the Gratitude Collective where we are building a one stop heart centered agency to help further support and grow Dreamers dreams.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

The rooms that we build in. I will often hear women say to me they don’t feel like they belong. And I think it’s a reflection of my entrepreneur journey and why I have created a multitude of companies whose purpose really can distinguish down into spreading the message of gratitude and building community. I do believe that we’re better together and that if I can get in and kind of open the door, I can invite all of these women into that room with me. You know, I’ve often phrased it as, we don’t have to worry about a seat at the table anymore if we never leave home without our chairs. And I think it’s, again, it’s through me unlearning that my own belonging matters. I do belong in the rooms that I get invited to. And by me unlearning it, it’s allowed me to share that with so many others.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

When I think about my journey and I think about resilience, I think entrepreneurship and resilience walk hand in hand. The death of my mother, my divorce, the growing brands and companies unfunded. You know, I often say that I started all of this with $1,000 and I still sit debt free. I build low and slow. I think one of the most resilient parts of my career was when we brought an investor on to help us grow one of the companies. And I was so excited. We did a packaging refresh. We had spent months building out this new rollout. And lo and behold, the investor I thought I had was actually kiting and stealing all of our money. And so over $75,000, probably collectively in debts from him. We did prosecute him.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.racheldesrochers.com/
• Instagram: @racheldesrochers
• Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/racheldesrochers
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsPYhVffAaCesi8eZViRAHQ?themeRefresh=1

Image Credits

Teah Longland Photography